Building on a Chainalysis report documenting $2.02 billion in 2025 cryptocurrency thefts by North Korean hackers, a U.S. State Department official told a U.N. meeting that Pyongyang likely stole more than $2 billion last year to support its nuclear and missile programs. The figure aligns with Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team findings of over $1.6 billion stolen from January to September 2025.
WASHINGTON — At a January 12 U.N. meeting, Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, detailed North Korea's sanctions evasion tactics, citing the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report. The MSMT, comprising 11 countries including the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Canada, formed after Russia's 2024 veto disbanded the prior U.N. expert panel.
Fritz noted North Korea stole more than $1.6 billion in cryptocurrency from January to September 2025, with the full-year total—estimated at $2.02 billion by Chainalysis, a 51% increase from 2024—likely a conservative figure. Cumulatively, over $2.8 billion was stolen from January 2024 to September 2025. Pyongyang launders funds through networks of nationals and facilitators in China, Russia, Cambodia, and Vietnam to procure weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea also sends IT workers abroad—1,000 to 1,500 in China and 150 to 300 in Russia—for revenue via fraud, displacing legitimate jobs and risking businesses. In a pre-meeting briefing, Fritz called curbing these cyber activities a U.S. "top priority," protecting citizens and firms from North Koreans "taking American jobs" and stealing crypto.
On potential Trump-Kim talks, Fritz said, "nothing to report," with "the ball in the North Korean court."
South Korea's deputy U.N. envoy Kim Sang-jin decried Russia's veto and warned that MSMT findings show North Korea exploiting crypto to fund unlawful WMD and missile programs, undermining global finance.
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